Hula enthusiasts both young and old gathered at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Saturday, July 20, to see videos and photos of Hawaii’s best entertainers from the 1980s. Entitled “The Hula Time Machine,” the Hula Preservation Society, with the help of BYU-Hawaii Archives Department, showcased footage from a series of concerts and performances at BYUH between 1980 and 1989.
The videos captured some of the biggest performers in Hawaiian music and dance. This was the first time these videos had been made public since their original taping, said Maile Lu, president of the Hula Preservation Society.
Jude Goodwin, a freshman from American Samoa studying biology, said, “I work at the PCC so I’m around hula a lot. But it’s interesting to see the differences between hula then and now. You can learn so much from what they did in the past.” The Hula Preservation Society is working on a project to digitize and remaster more than 100 hours of footage from the BYUH Archives.
“I think that’s cool that they’re doing that. I’m all about preserving the culture for the keiki,” said Toby Redd, a senior studying finance from Washington. The two-hour presentation held in the PCC IMAX Theater highlighted performances from respected hula dancers Queenie Ventura Dowsett, Alice Namekelua, and many other performers of the day. Hosts Lu and Dr. Ishmael Stagner, who is a BYUH alumnus, provided commentary for the event.
Dowsett said, “My hula for me is a part of my life. Hula brings me joy. It brings me love. It’s a kind of magic.” Stagner, a hula dancer himself, is working as a consultant on the digitizing and remastering the project. Along with video footage, live musical performances were given by several members of the audience.
Lu said she hopes by making more presentations, she can respark the wonderful memories created from dancing and singing traditional Hawaiian music. “It (the Archives) holds a treasury of the greats of hula and music and Hawaiian culture. It was important for us to come back to where it all started and share with them what we’ve done,” she added.